HIGH WHITE SUN by author J. Todd Scott is the follow-up to “The Far Empty”, and is focused on five main characters; Sheriff Chris Cherry who is still feeling the effects of the injuries sustained previously, and dealing with those who feel he’s unable to replace the late Sheriff Ross;
Ben Harper is his experienced but at times contentious deputy who gives Chris advise, whether wanted or not.
America Reynosa is his youngest deputy, who has a troubled past but Chris is willing to take a chance on.
Danny is the son of the late Texas Ranger Bob Ford who was murdered several years earlier, and is a veteran who has previously worked undercover to infiltrate Aryan Brotherhood gangs.
John Wesley Earl is a longtime ABT (Aryan Brotherhood of Texas) leader recently released from prison after a lengthy sentence and is currently in the area with an ABT gang led by his son Jesse.

Chris is responsible for the investigation into the recent death of a man with a troubled past who’s been found dead outside of a bar he was at until closing the night before.
Harper and Reynosa are assigned the case, but it becomes a possibility that it along with another case may be taken over by the FBI.

Soon another headache for Chris and the department arrives in the form of Thurman Flowers, a well known preacher who is a known ABT supporter and his plan is for a future white supremacy community that he expects to establish with funding from the Earls and their associates.

All things appear to be possibly connected, and threats are made against Chis and his wife heightening his sense of security both at home and in the community based on the the recent criminal presence and related activities.

Will Chris and his deputies solve the cases they are in charge of, and will they be able to fend off the FBI efforts to supplant them? Does Chris have the capability and manpower to keep the ABT at bay in the wake of the arrival of Thurman Flowers, and will Danny learn the truth about who killed his father?

Excellent novel that involves several people that all are connected in one way or another, and even more impressive is that this one is rather lengthy in comparison to similar books of this type; yet it never loses momentum and progresses at a good pace as it develops.

I really wish I’d read the previous novel in the series, even though the author does a great job of filling the reader in on previous events taking place, it definitely would have been even more enjoyable with a familiarity with the characters and events before reading this, and I intend to go back and read the first book as reviewers have praised it, and if it’s anything like this one, it’s well worth taking the time to read it.

5 stars.

This is a terrific follow-up to the author's first book. The story is deeper and the writing even more intense. A a great read that will keep you turning the pages long into the night.

HIGH WHITE SUN
J. Todd Scott
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
ISBN 978-0-399-17635-7
Hardcover
Thriller

If you like your thrillers hot and dusty then it is absolutely imperative that you read HIGH WHITE SUN. J. Todd Scott’s sophomore effort is as dark and dry as it gets, and yes, it is frighteningly real as well. The plot is complex and contains a number of moving parts which don’t always perfectly mesh --- just like life --- but which capture the crime and violence at the southern border of the United States with an unfiltered high speed shutter.

HIGH WHITE SUN picks up some months after the conclusion of THE FAR EMPTY, Scott’s debut novel. The setting --- Big Bend County in West Texas (which in the real world is a geographical designation more than an actual place_ --- is the same, as are a number of the characters. It accordingly is helpful though not (entirely) necessary to have read what has gone before in order to fully appreciate HIGH WHITE SUN, though Scott does an admirable job of bringing new readers into the fold. Chris Cherry, following the events of THE FAR EMPTY, is now the top sheriff of the county, even as he struggles with his own self-doubt and and the psychological trauma of a near brush with death. The story in the book’s present begins with one of Cherry’s deputies being seriously injured in a hit and run incident, the reasons for which resonate throughout the book. The department isn’t exactly personnel-rich to begin with, and two of Cherry’s other choices for deputies are somewhat controversial. One is America “Ame” Reynosa, who is concealing family ties, as well as a secret stash, that may come back to haunt her as well as the sheriff’s department. The other is Ben “Harp” Harper, a veteran sheriff who has forgotten more than Cherry is ever likely to learn in the near term. Harper, who is retired, has reluctantly returned to law enforcement following the death of his wife but his blood alcohol content makes him unsteady, though still reliable. The department experiences a bit of a baptism when a local guide is found with his head caved in on the blacktop of the parking lot of a lean-to bar. The deceased, who had been seeing a Mexican woman, had exchanged words with some bikers, who turn out to be part of an Aryan Brotherhood group ensconced in a nearby town. This would be bad enough, but the leader of the gang is John Wesley Earl, who has spent more of his life in prison than out. Earl, his racism notwithstanding, does business with a Mexican cartel, and deals with other sources. What he doesn’t realize, however, is that he has more than one traitor in his midst, so that even as he double- and triple-deals he is contemporaneously reaping what he is sewing. Cherry’s local department, meanwhile, is getting caught crossways with state and federal law enforcement, each of which have their own interests and territory to protect and which are willing to sacrifice the Big Bend law enforcement officers to achieve their own ends. The machinations of all on both sides of the law lead to a series of violent and fatal conclusions which resonate all the way to the end of HIGH WHITE SUN, which, notwithstanding the foregoing, sets the stage for a sequel on a high note of hope, not to mention rough justice.

HIGH WHITE SUN takes a while to get moving after a series of violent vignettes but Scott’s characters carry the day into the final quarter of the book, where alternating points of view skid across a number of violent tableaus, ultimately resolving (most of) what has gone before. Not everyone makes it to the end of HIGH WHITE SUN --- there are some surprises that go with that --- but it just makes the book, and the characters, all the more real. It’s border noir at its best.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2018, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

J Todd Scott is a born storyteller who will never know the meaning of Sophomore Slump. In his second novel, Scott once again shows great skills at drawing a spiderweb of intrigues and slowly connects the dots to finish the reader with a punch in the gut sensation about what happens in the Big Bend.

The real life experience of Scott as a DEA agent lives through the pages of High White Sun as he takes the reader inside a bound to crash Sheriff's office loaded with newbies and the occasionnal vet. His prose is lyrical and flows like a river at thaw, yet Scott also manages to pack the almost 500 page novel with enough action sequences make sure the reader feels every gunshot, every explosion, every punch like he was under the baking sun of Murfee, TX.

The table is set for what I hope will be a long series.

Two years after the death of Sheriff Ross, Sheriff Chris Cherry has another body on his hands and a gang of white supremacist bikers living in a nearby town...

The Far Empty wound up being fantastic so I scooped this up when it popped up on Netgalley.

The second book set in the sleepy Texas border town of Murfee packs almost as big of a punch as the first. When a man winds up dead outside a bar, Chris Cherry picks up the trail and it leads him to a family of white supremacist bikers in a nearby town. However, nothing is as cut and dry as it seems.

Much like the last book, it's the ensemble cast that powers the story forward. Chris has a mentor in Ben Harper, a widowed lawman that's Chris' right hand and a capable deputy in America Reynosa. The Earl family is a horrible reflection of the makeshift family Chris has in the Murfee PD. Aside from the undercover cop in their midst, that is...

There are wheels within wheels in this one. Lots of people are lying and keeping secrets and more than one person ends up in the ground because of it. Once I got over the 50% hump, it was a hard book to put aside.

Once again, J. Todd Scott did a great job with the scenery and location, making Murfee and the surrounding areas almost a character in the story. Chris Cherry, however, is probably the least interesting character in the book. If the supporting cast wasn't so rich, I don't think I'd rate this or The Far Empty as highly.

The ending wound up being an even bigger trainwreck than I thought. The Murfee PD went through the flames and none of them came out without at least minor burns. While satisfying on its own, I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

While I didn't like it quite as much as The Far Empty, High White Sun was quite a read. Four out of five stars.